Government flip-flops destroyed India’s foreign policy: Congress

New Delhi, April 1 (IANS) The Congress on Friday said inconsistency and flip-flops on Modi government's part had totally destroyed India's decades-old foreign policy.

“India had a proud and consistent foreign policy, but it has been destroyed by this government's flip-flops. The humongous failures on diverse fronts underline the prime minister's (Narendra Modi) and BJP's complete incapacity and ineptitude in handling such delicate matters,” Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi told reporters here.

He was reacting to coming together of China and Pakistan at the United Nations to block India's attempt for an international ban on Maulana Masood Azhar and his outfit Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM).

“The nation sees it as a proof of a failed government policy on the issue and clumsy flip-flops of the ruling party (Bharatiya Janata Party),” Singhvi said, describing the development a negation of all incremental growths achieved by the previous governments.

“The denial of India's plea to characterise JeM and its chief Azhar as a terrorist and the failure to put him in the category of Al Qaeda and Islamic State is particularly offensive since there is overwhelming evidence to link him to the Pathankot terror attack,” Singhvi said.

“The conspiratorial move in the UN demonstrate the futility and the optic value of the 'jhoola' event at Gujarat during the Chinese president's visit and the impromptu visit for the marriage reception in the family of Pakistan prime minister recently,” the Congress leader said.

He said it was strange and contradictory that a senior Inter-Services Intelligence officer and other state officials were a part of the Joint Investigation Team from Pakistan that visited India to probe the Pathankot attack.

“When various anti-India terror organisations and individuals of the likes of Masood Azhar actually flourish with active patronage of the ISI and other agencies in Pakistan, we have a strange spectacle of Rajnath Singh, Manohar Parrikar and Amit Shah, senior ministers holding home and defence portfolios and the BJP president respectively, exhorting Indians to have faith in Pakistan,” Singhvi said.

The Congress insisted that India's worst fears had come true because the Pakistan team obediently and dutifully did its masters' bidding by giving a clean chit to Jaish-e-Mohammad, ISI and all other actors in its report.